What did we get from Ramadan?

All praise be to Allah, the Most Gracious and the Most Compassionate and May His blessings be showered on His beloved Prophet Muhammad (S) and his family.

Ramadan?s advent was greeted by all Muslims with great joy and pleasure, and it passing away was lamented, with the consolation that the next Ramadan will come the following year. The question each one of us should ask himself or herself at the end of this blessed month is, ?how much did I benefit from Ramadan??

Ramadan is a festival of rewards and blessings. Those who seek such things will find them easily. The prayers, the fasting, the supplication, the charity and the many good deeds and acts of worship do purify us from our evil thoughts and habits which eventually increase due to the emptiness of goodness and virtue in our daily life. Thirty days of training and conditioning could be enough to beautify our character and purify us from filth, heal us from the wounds of past sins and shortcomings and make us enthusiastic to do more good things and make the daily compulsory deeds very easy to perform in our eyes.

Ramadan is like the last train station where you can catch a train that you just missed somewhere else. A chance that could be the last one. It could be an outset for a new life and a new beginning. A beginning for a pure and sane life. Ramadan is about a purification that makes the individual content, happy, light, focused, disciplined and more importantly aware of what is right and what is wrong through both the study and the practice of the Qur?an?s principles. Ramadan makes us aware of those who don?t have and teaches us the meaning of thirst and hunger in a time we hardly know what contentment, appreciation and gratitude are. But why would a person refrain from doing things that ensure his, or her, happiness? And where would a person live a true life where he, or she, feels guided and blessed. Allah Almighty says, ?Ramadan is the month in which was sent down the Qur?an, as a Guide to people and also Clear Signs for Guidance and Judgment between right and wrong? (2:185)

In a world where a few would distinguish clearly right from wrong, the Qur?an, for which Ramadan is a festival of celebration and commemoration, seems to be the best guide and tool that lays in its text the Universal values and principles that all humans recognize and know and esteem. This book that is believed by all Muslims to be the Word of Allah is a constitution for an organized life from the individual to the society. This book is about belief in God the Creator and individuals? relationship with Him. It is about good manners of conduct and laws and principles that organize life. But unfortunately it is not reflected today in our actions. And as a consequence, it has become very difficult to explain Islam to others since its high ideals still remain in the theory stage.

Ramadan is a golden chance to change to a better human, a better father, a better mother, a better brother, a better sister, a better son, a better daughter, a better neighbor and colleague?etc., It should make us better in many respects in order to become guiding and inspiring models for others and for the generations to come as was our beloved Prophet Muhammad (S). He was indeed described as a walking Qur?an, a practical translation of the word of the Qur?an and an embodiment of the principles and high ideals of the Qur?an.

May Allah accept our fasting, prayers, charity and good deeds and May He keep us guided and blessed after Ramadan. Amen!

Imam Hamid Slimi